Montreal sales soar past TO, Van. for first time in 20 years

Montreal sales soar past TO, Van. for first time in 20 years

Montreal was one of Canada’s hottest real estate markets last year as low unemployment and economic growth translated into the area’s best sales growth in a decade. Total sales in the Greater Montreal Area increased eight per cent to 44,448 on the strength of condominium sales and good overall activity on the Island of Montreal. Sales growth exceeded 20 per cent in five of the city’s most popular boroughs.

Globe and Mail – CBC – Montreal Gazette – Canada Newswire

Quebec landlords push ban on smoking pot inside apartments

Landlords in Quebec are taking steps to ensure their rental properties remain free of pot smoke, even though the drug will be legal in Canada July 1. Under Quebec’s proposed marijuana law, residents will be allowed to use marijuana recreationally in their homes but won’t be permitted to grow cannabis for personal use.

CBC

Central Park Tower world’s tallest residential building

Nationally acclaimed real estate development firm Extell Development Company announced the company has closed on its largest construction loan to date – $1.135 billion US – for Central Park Tower. Central Park Tower, a 1,550-foot-tall architectural landmark located on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row, will be the tallest residential building in the world.

Canada Newswire

Toronto’s housing recovery may trail Vancouver’s

Toronto’s housing market drop is echoing Vancouver’s earlier plunge but Canada’s most populous city may not bounce back so quickly as new rules continue to tighten access to home loans. Canada’s two largest housing markets both saw a dramatic slide after a raft of regulations were instituted to tame runaway house prices. Benchmark price gains in Vancouver fell for five months after policy makers introduced a foreign buyers tax in August 2016.

Bloomberg

Vancouver apartment market heats up as building starts stall

One of the first purpose-built rental properties to sell in a forward sale in Vancouver during the current surge in rental construction has come forward again. Mayfair Properties Ltd. is selling MC2, bought from Intracorp Projects Ltd. in 2013 for $26.8 million. The 110-unit project is fully leased and listed with the Goodman team at HQ Real Estate Services Ltd. for $54 million.

Business In Vancouver

Vancouver condo prices soar as seller’s market emerges

The Vancouver region’s condo prices are soaring as buyers flock to multi-family units that are often at least $1 million less expensive than detached houses. The benchmark price for condos that traded hands last month in Greater Vancouver reached a record high of $655,400, up 1.1 per cent from November and a gain of 25.9 per cent since December 2016. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Tsawwassen’s property values show biggest increase in B.C.

In B.C.’s  2018 property value assessment, residential property on Tsawwassen First Nation lands went up nearly 45 per cent, the largest average increase seen in the province. Chief Bryce Williams attributes the increase to the recent commercial developments, Tsawwassen Mills and Tsawwassen Commons, as well as the residential complex Tsawwassen Shores.

CBC – Vancouver Sun – Victoria Times Colonist – CBC

Foreign buyers paying almost 50% more for TO properties

Foreign home buyers spent an average of almost 50 per cent more per real estate transaction in the Toronto region than Canadians in recent months, according to previously unreleased government data. The data, obtained by The Globe and Mail through a Freedom of Information request, bolster concerns that international investors drive up housing prices, the most contentious issue in the debate over the effects of foreign capital on real estate.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Foreign buyers ‘dominate’ high-end sales in Vancouver

With listing prices of up to $35 million, the Shaughnessy neighbourhood of Vancouver has the most expensive houses in Canada, according to a national survey by New York City-based Engel & Völkers, a real estate agency that has offices in major Canadian cities. The survey also found the most expensive resale condominiums in Metro Vancouver now average $1,800 per square foot.

Business In Vancouver – Business In Vancouver – BCBusiness

Following real estate money from China — impossible!

A new lengthy B.C. Supreme Court judgment reveals the complicated financial and real-estate legerdemain gatekeepers face trying to regulate ultra-wealthy Chinese investors in Canada. Those on both sides in the litigation, who called each other liars, acted as if they cared little about financial transparency or honesty in record-keeping even in deals involving sums that would stagger ordinary Canadians.

Vancouver Sun – CBC – Vancouver Province

N.S. island remains unsold, despite $2.5M price drop

An American family’s striking 57-acre private Nova Scotia island remains unsold, eight years after it went on the market and despite a $2.5-million price drop. Now, realtor Mariana Cowan is suggesting alternate uses for Kaulbach Island, which boasts an 11,000-square-foot main house and encircling sandy beaches that overlook the province’s picturesque Mahone Bay.

Winnipeg Free Press

Minto eyes eight-storey residential building in Ottawa

Calling it “one of the most significant opportunities for intensification” along Bank Street in the Glebe, an Ottawa developer is looking to replace a 1980s-era commercial building with a taller residential structure. If the development – which first requires a rezoning of the property – goes ahead, Minto Communities would preserve the two-storey strip of retail buildings that run along Bank Street and were constructed between 1896 and 1909.

Ottawa Business Journal

PropertyGuys.com CEO disrupting real estate market

If you’re a working real estate agent, Ken Leblanc may be your worst enemy. He’s the founder and CEO of PropertyGuys.com — a fee for service, no agent required, fully technological option for selling your home. With More than 100 franchises across the country, this little company based in Moncton has become a global real estate powerhouse.

Toronto Storeys

Stress tests, foreign buyers, higher rates impact 2018 market

Real estate was a major topic in the business world in 2017, and with some big changes on the horizon, the subject is likely to dominate headlines again this year. Here are five things to watch for in Canadian real estate in 2018:

CBC – Calgary Herald – Canada Newswire – MoneySense

Canada’s 2017 real estate ups and downs

Between red hot first quarter prices and major policy bombshells like Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan, 2017 was one to remember for the Canadian housing market. It can be difficult to keep track of everything that went down in the past year. To jog your memory, BuzzBuzzNews has rounded up five charts that make sense of 2017’s major real estate events.

BuzzBuzzNews

Market Conditions

TREB blames Queen’s Park for 18 per cent drop in sales

The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is laying the blame at the provincial government’s feet for a “volatile” year that saw sales drop more than 18 per cent, while prices for detached homes turned negative. “Much of the sales volatility in 2017 was brought about by government policy decisions,” TREB president Tim Syrianos said in a statement.

Huffington Post – BNN – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Newinhomes.com

Ottawa home sales up 10% in 2017

A rebound in the condo market, combined with a year-end rush to beat new mortgage rules, helped drive local home sales in 2017 to the highest level in at least nine years, newly released figures show. The Ottawa Real Estate Board said Thursday its members sold 17,083 residential properties last year, up 10 per cent from the 15,526 homes sold in 2016. Condo sales were up 22 per cent.

Ottawa Business Journal – Ottawa Citizen

Saskatoon real estate sales fall for third straight year

A late-year bump was not enough to offset an overall decline in Saskatoon’s residential real estate market, which fell nine per cent to just under $1.6 billion in 2017, according to the Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors (SRAR). Last year marked the third consecutive 12-month period of declining sales after the city’s real estate market peaked at $2.1 billion in 2014, the association reported on Tuesday. 

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Active listings dropping across the board in B.C.’s Fraser Valley

After posting its second-highest-selling year on record in 2017, the Fraser Valley real estate market is facing a steep decline in active listings across various communities within the region. According to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), active listings fell 22.9% for townhouses in North Surrey, 58% for apartments in Abbotsford, 62.5% for townhomes in Mission and 29.6% for townhomes in Langley in December 2017 year-over-year.

Business In Vancouver

Mortgage and Finance

Mortgage bond market may get boost from new rules

The Canadian government is increasingly reluctant to insure mortgages against default. That may end up giving new life to a nascent bond market in the nation. For decades, most home loans made in Canada were made by the biggest banks and guaranteed by the government’s housing agency. In late 2016, regulators tightened the requirements for qualifying for that insurance, resulting in more people doing without it.

Bloomberg

B.C. increases homeowner-grant threshold to $1.65M

The B.C. government has increased the threshold for a grant aimed at homeowners to ensure recently released property assessments don’t cut people out of the program. The changes mean owners whose homes are worth up to $1.65 million are now eligible for the province’s homeowner grant, up from $1.6 million last year. The program provides $570 toward the costs of property taxes for owners eligible for the basic grant.

Globe and Mail – Business In Vancouver

Reverse mortgage debt on Canadian RE rising $1.25 per second

Canadians short on retirement funds may be turning to using their home equity. Numbers from the  Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) show reverse mortgages experienced huge double digit growth in October 2017. That’s good news for reverse mortgage lenders, but bad news for a country increasingly addicted to debt.

Better Dwelling

U.S. 30-year mortgage rates slip to 3.95 per cent

Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell last week, making it slightly more affordable to borrow for a home. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 3.95 per cent from 3.99 last week. The average has tumbled from 4.20 per cent a year ago. The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 3.38 from 3.44 in the prior week. This same rate averaged 3.44 last year.

Chron.com

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Seedy B.C. bar to be converted into condos

Before the Flamingo bar on the corner of 108 Avenue and King George Blvd. in Surrey, B.C. is turned into condos, it will get one last run as a neighbourhood hotspot. Flamingo Managing Partner David Geertz — who also heads up a non-profit arts society — wants to transform the old bar and former strip club next door into an arts hub for the community.

CBC

Legal Issues

Edmonton RE agent jailed for defrauding clients, colleague

A former Edmonton real estate agent who defrauded clients and a colleague out of more than $100,000 was sentenced on Friday to nearly two years in jail and ordered to repay his victims. Christo Courelias, 51, was convicted of three counts of fraud over $5,000 after a November 2017 trial when a judge found he’d taken various sums that totalled $112,500 from four people. 

Edmonton Journal

Affordable Housing

Valemount looks to Whistler as ski resort prompts affordability fears

With out-of-town investors cashing in on cheap vacation homes, the village of Valemount, B.C., is looking for ways to remain affordable to year-round residents. The pending construction of the Valemount Glacier Destination Resort, slated to open in 2020, has attracted new money to the Rocky Mountain village located roughly 120 kilometres west of Jasper, Alta.

CBC

Buying and Selling

Daryl Katz’ Vancouver penthouse listed at $38 million

A piece of property owned by Daryl Katz is up for sale. The Fairmont Pacific Rim penthouse on West Cordova Street in Vancouver is listed as being for sale for $38 million. The condo is one of the properties occupied by the owner of the Edmonton Oilers’ NHL team. It was purchased in April 2010 by a numbered company and that year had an assessed value of $14,592,000.

Edmonton Journal – CBC

Canada should follow N.Z.’s lead, ban foreign buyers: Opinion

As of Jan. 1, foreigners are banned from buying property in New Zealand because of soaring real estate prices. Canada should have done the same years ago. Last month, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation claimed misleadingly that “non-residents” own a small portion of housing – a mere 3.4 percent in Toronto and 4.8 percent in Vancouver. That statement underscores the incompetence of the country and its principal lender.

Financial Post

What are Canadian new-home buyers looking for?

Tim Bailey likes to joke that he’s always on the look-out for something sexy in the data he tracks on the preferences of Canadians new-construction home buyers. “Give me something to work with, consumers,” pleads Bailey, the division president of Avid Ratings, a market research company that has been surveying new-construction home buyers since 2014 for the Canadian Home Builders Association.

Toronto Star

Other

Smart homes becoming ever more common

Internet-connected lights, locks and laundry machines are close to becoming everyday household items, thanks in part to voice-activated speakers such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. Market research groups are seeing increased sales of lights that turn off when you say “good night,” smart locks that let in your friends before you get home and similar smart-home gadgets,

Daily Commercial News

	RENX has surpassed 10,340 Twitter followers
	Recent follower Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure tweets information about infrastructure funding and projects in the province.
	Follow RENXca, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian real estate professionals.